Programme director
Honourable Acting Premier of the Free State province, Mr M J Zwane
Fellow Members of the Executive Council, MPLS
Executive Mayor of the Mangaung Local Municipality
Councillor Morule
Director-General, Ms Rockman and other senior
Government officials
Vice Chancellor of CUT Professor Mthembu
Representatives from Trade Unions
Representatives from our partners in the private sector
Top performing principals and learners, parents
Parents
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen
Greetings to everybody and a warm welcome to all of you!
Honourable Acting Premier, just as we have done in the previous years, we take this opportunity to review the year gone by, and to chart a way forward for the year that lies ahead. We have gathered here to celebrate excellent performance of our schools and learners. This improvement can be attributed among others to our.
Provincial Strategy on Learner Attainment (PSLA) initiative, which we conceived in 2009 with a view to improve learner achievement, particularly at Grade 12 level. The implementation of this strategy sought to ensure that the whole system remains focused on the development of effective schools, to create an enabling environment for all learners to perform to their full potential, and to achieve the desired outcomes in the National Senior Certificate Examinations.
Programme director, ladies and gentlemen, we will remember the 2010 academic year as one of the most difficult years in the history of our education, as we encountered one of the longest and depressing industrial actions in the public service, in which our teachers participated.
While we are not blaming any incident for our relatively low improvement in our grade 12 results, we would like to believe that we could have done better, given the commitment, dedication and hard work of our educators and everyone who participated in the preparation of our learners for these examinations.
We thank them for that and we also commend the courage shown by our learners, who calmly entered these examinations with nothing but success in their minds, despite having lost a substantial part of their contact time during the industrial action. We acknowledge their dedication and courage, and this proves the kind of future leaders we can anticipate from this cohort.
Honourable Acting Premier, Programme Director, ladies and gentlemen, education is a means of promoting good citizenship, as well as preparing our people for the demands of modern economy in a democratic society.
Building on the achievements we made since the dawn of our democracy, it is worth emphasising that government is continuously seeking to ensure a progressive realisation of universal schooling, improving quality in education and eliminating disparities. To achieve this strategic objective, we need to work together with all stakeholders in the education of our children, to make education a priority for all.
Honourable Acting Premier, in our quest to ensure that quality teaching becomes the norm, we will work together with trade unions to ensure that teachers are in class on time and teaching, with no neglect of duty and no abuse of learners.
Similarly, we will make sure that learners are in class on time and learning, be respectful of their teachers and each other, and do their work diligently.
As President Jacob Zuma said in his inaugural address on 9 May 2009 that, “Together we must build a society that prizes excellence and rewards effort, which shuns laziness and incompetence. We must build a society that draws on the capabilities, energy and promise of all its people.”
We call upon parents and other stakeholders to play their respective roles towards reaching this goal. In line with the above, the department has since 2009 embarked on the Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign.
This campaign was initiated to be the advocacy crusade that would include all major stakeholders, including principals, teacher unions, student formations, parents and community organisations, to ensure that our schools become centres of excellence. We take this opportunity to encourage the private sector to grow its efforts to support education development.
Honourable Acting Premier, it is also worth mentioning that the improvement in our 2010 Grade 12 results is inclusive of hard work shown by schools which are historically underperforming. In 2010 most of these schools produced better results, as compared to what they achieved in 2009 and earlier. We are happy about that, although there are still a few which are still struggling. We encourage them to work harder in 2011, and we will continue to provide them with the necessary support.
Everyone should commit him or herself to support our learners and teachers so that we can move from strength to strength.
We will continue to give the necessary support to all schools, with a special attention to those which are struggling to improve their performance. We want all of our schools to become centres of excellence in the near future.
Our key message to the Class of 2011 and all stakeholders is that each individual must take responsibility and perform to the best of his or her ability. We will not tolerate absenteeism, ill-discipline and lack of commitment by anyone.
Programme director, ladies and gentlemen we have partners who are recognising our learners’ good performance in the final Grade 12 examinations, and cordially sponsor this function. This year’s function is not an exception. I therefore would like to acknowledge them with gratitude, as they have made it possible for us to present achievers with many of the awards handed over today.
They are:
- FNB
- Standard Bank
- Interstate Bus Line
- Chemical Industries Education and Training Authority (Chieta)
- Maskew Miller Longman
- Nedbank
- Pan South Africa Language Board.
Honourable Acting Premier, I am happy to report that despite the unavoidable turbulences we encountered while preparing for the 2010 Grade 12 examinations, we are ready to announce the results. It is therefore an honour and privilege for me to present our 2010 National Senior Certificate provincial results as approved and declared credible by Umalusi, the Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training.
Number of learners who wrote the 2010 NSC examinations
The Free State province presented 27 586 candidates who wrote the third NSC examinations. This figure represents a decline of 2 222 learners in comparison to 29 808 learners who wrote the 2009 NSC examinations.
Our results have improved by 1,3 percent from 69.4 percent we attained in 2009, to 70.7 percent in 2010, slightly in line with our target of 75 percent. Nonetheless, we do celebrate the improvement.
Number of schools with 100 percent pass rate
Program director, in 2009 the number of schools with a 100 percent pass rate was 38. With the 2010 NSC results, the number has increased to 40, with 15 new entrants in the category of 100 percent schools.
NSC for admission into Bachelor’s Degree (endorsement)
This level of attainment for the award of the NSC is the equivalent of the endorsement (for university entry) in relation to the old senior certificate. For this level, candidates are required to obtain an achievement rating of 4, which is adequate achievement of 50 – 59 percent or higher in 4 designated subjects. In 2010 there were 5 890 candidates who have met the requirements for the award of the NSC as endorsement.
This gives the Free State province an endorsement rate of 21.35 percent in contrast to 20, 2 percent in 2009. This is indeed a significant achievement as the requirements for endorsement in the new NSC are much higher and harder to attain in comparison to the requirements of the old (previous) senior certificate.
NSC for admission into a Diploma course
For this level of attainment ladies and gentlemen, candidates are required to obtain an achievement rating of 3, which is a moderate achievement of 40 – 49 percent or higher in 4 subjects. There are 8 180 candidates who have met the requirements for the award of the NSC for admission into diploma studies.
NSC for admission into Higher Certificate Programs
This is an ordinary NSC pass. For this level of attainment, candidates are required to meet the minimum pass requirements for the award of the NSC. There are 5 429 candidates who have met the minimum pass requirements for the award of the new National Senior Certificate (NSC).
Honourable Acting Premier, the slight improvement we attained in the 2010 examinations results prompts us to work even harder, and I know that everybody is already gearing up towards a higher percentage in 2011. Our target still stands between 75 and 80 percent in the 2011 Grade 12 results
Performance of districts
The overall picture in relation to the performance of districts is as foll
| Distric | Number of Schools | Schools > 60%
| Schools < 60%
| Pass % 2009
| Pass % 2010
| Difference + OR -
|
| Xhariep | 24 | 20 | 4 | 74.16 | 73.24 | - 0.92%
|
| Motheo | 80 | 64 | 15 | 71.84 | 74.59 | + 2.75%
|
| Lejweleputswa | 69 | 52 | 17 | 69.03 | 72.60 | + 3.57%
|
| Thabo Mafutsanyana | 85 | 55 | 30 | 66.00 | 65.69 | - 0.31
|
| Fezile Dabi | 58 | 40 | 18 | 69.6 | 68.89 | - 0.73
|
Ladies and gentlemen the best district in the 2010 Grade 12 results is therefore Motheo. Ladies and gentlemen at this stage I am pleased to announce our top Maths and Physical Science School in 2010, which is Eunice High School Our Best Performing Learner, ladies and gentlemen is Meikie Mellisa from Kagisho CSS and our Top Performing Learner is Christelle van Zyl from Fichardt Park SS.
2011 bursary allocation
I am also pleased Honourable Acting Premier, to pronounce the budget allocated for the awarding of bursaries to deserving learners in 2011, as part of our Provincial Human Resource Development Strategy. About 700 new bursaries will be allocated to deserving learners who matriculated in 2010.
These bursaries will be allocated mainly in the fields of medicine, actuarial science, agricultural science and other strategic fields of study, in terms of our provincial scarce skills development strategy.
The cost per allocation is R50 000.00 and the total cost is R35,000,000.00. This figure excludes the R7,500 000.00, which will be awarded to top 150 Grade 12 learners today. This means that a total bursary allocation of R128, 148,000.00 has been budgeted for the 2011 academic year, to cater for both new and continuing bursary holders.
Program director, ladies and gentlemen, the Honourable Acting Premier is here with us, and he will now give us a keynote address.
Honourable Acting Premier, it gives me pleasure topresent you to a function of this magnitude. Will youplease ascend the podium to address us.
Thank you very much!
Source: Free State Education
